


Bailey's 7

by pherryt



Series: The McCoy Files [4]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek AOS
Genre: Cuddling, First Contact, Hurt!Bones, Hurt/Comfort, I totally made it up, New Species, Telepathy, cuddling for warmth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 12:44:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16702828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pherryt/pseuds/pherryt
Summary: Trapped in a cave, hurt and alone, Bones is now faced with a horde of little furry animals with no idea if they want to eat him or not... How did he windupin these situations?





	Bailey's 7

**Author's Note:**

> Princessjimmynovak did a random call that landed on McCoy, Cuddling for Warmth. No ships (so even though i'm setting this in my McCOy Files Universe, it doesn't feature Jim and Bones relationship)

Leonard was having a bad day. A very bad day.

Instinctively, he wanted to blame Jim, but if Leonard was honest with himself, he could only blame Jim for the generic crime of having been dumb enough to follow him into space.

This, specifically, though, wasn’t his fault. This exploration away mission of an uninhabited planet was supposed to be a piece of cake.

Jim’s words, not his.

“Piece of cake, my ass,” Leonard muttered to nobody as he stared once more at the remnants of his broken communicator.

There was no way he was calling for help on  _that_ thing. Not even Scotty could save it.

With a sigh, Leonard turned to inspect his surroundings and winced at the movement and the pressure it put on his injured leg and more than likely cracked ribs. He’d hurt himself in the fall but he’d already done what he could to patch himself up. There was nothing more to be done till he could get back on board the enterprise.

He should count himself lucky, he knew, for not having gotten hurt worse than he was when he’d been separated from the away team.

God, were they all right? Was Jim all right? Did they think he was dead? If he’d been the observer to the cause of his current predicament, he’d have thought the chances of that were damn good.

It had been a freak thing, especially considering that none of Spocks’ careful planet wide scans had shown  _any_ evidence of instability. Leonard couldn’t even blame Spock for this (though he might anyway, just to mess with him if Leonard ever got out of here) as Leonard had seen the scans himself. Even a layman with minimal Starfleet training could understand those readouts.

That didn’t change the here and now. It didn’t change the fact that the ground had literally opened up beneath Leonard’s feet and swallowed him whole while they’d been exploring a system of strange yet beautiful crystalline caves.

Those crystals were currently his only source of light.

Well, at least if he died here, he’d die surrounded by beauty.

After making himself as comfortable as he could against one wall, he tried a second time to look around. The entire cave was covered in glittering crystals, the ceiling going white with reflected light rather than black with darkness. He was unsure how high, exactly, the ceiling went, but since he wasn’t planning on standing up and jumping any time soon, he was fairly sure he didn’t need to worry about hitting his head. He probably already had a concussion – no, scratch that, he  _did_ have a concussion – and there was no need to make it worse.

He was just glad the hypo and the dermal regenerator had survived the fall. After cleaning out all the wounds he could reach, he’d sealed them to prevent infections. He’d torn his shirt up to wrap his right ankle after using all the bandages in his kit for his ribs and his left knee.

They hypo had been necessary to curb the pain, though he was careful not to use too much. He had no idea how long he’d be down here or how fast he’d run out.

Well, now,  _that’s_ a depressing thought.

Leonard shivered as a cold draft skittered over his skin. He tried to pinpoint where it was coming from but sighed and shook his head. It was a good sign – he wouldn’t have to worry about running out of air, and a draft meant there was still some access to whatever cave he was in. But there wasn’t anything he could  _do_ about it. He daren’t get too loud, in case it triggered another… what? Cave in? That’s not what it had been, but if the cave was so unstable that it  _ate_ him when they walked inside, dare he risk yelling for help?

Did he dare  _not_ risk it?

He didn’t even know how long he’d blacked out for when he’d come to at the bottom of his fall.

Was it getting colder in here? Or was the shock setting in?

“Maybe both. Probably both,” he muttered aloud, rubbing at his arms.

A chirping sound made him freeze. He scanned the cavern again, squinting against the scintillating light. He still had no idea the truth depth of this cave and it only just occurred to him that maybe _, just maybe,_ he wasn’t truly alone.

Oh, he’d carefully called out for other members of the away team when he first regained consciousness, despite his strong belief that he was the only one sucked into the bowels of the earth, so he knew he was the only Enterprise crew member down here. What he hadn’t thought about was whatever indigenous fauna might make its home in the caves.

The chirp sound came again, closer this time and he swung his head around and – there, there it was.

“Oh look at you, all cute and cuddly and probably deadly as hell,” he cooed, trying to remain as non-threatening as possible. With his (current) luck, this was baby and mama was about to chew his ass for trespassing.

There was another chirp sound, this time to his left and yes, there were two more of the little buggers. Swinging his head back and forth with a growing dread, Leonard watched as they multiplied, the sound of them growing louder with each additional little furry... _whatevers._

He shivered in the chill and the sudden thought that had occurred to him.

What did these little guys even  _eat_ all down here by their lonesome? Was he about to become dinner? Were these cute and fuzzy creatures the equivalent of cave piranhas? Would the Enterprise and her crew find anything left of him but his bones?

He snorted, then chuckled as he was thrown back into his first memories of Jim.

Bones.

A nickname he’d never wanted but had grown on him dearly. He’d never admit it to Jim, but he was actually quite fond of it now. Course, it also made a certain macabre poetry. To Jim, he would start and end as Bones.

He sobered up and shivered again, the laughter dying out on his lips. He blinked and the little creatures had gotten closer.

“Shoo! Leave me alone!  I’m not your goddamn dinner!” He growled suddenly, flapping one arm at them.

His attempt at scaring them off was useless as they didn’t even flinch. Still staring at them with wide, ice blue eyes, they inched their way closer. Leonard swallowed uneasily as the first one touched his leg. Then the second one. Before he knew it, he was cocooned in a living fur blanket that purred as it settled down.

And they were warm. So very, very warm.

He hadn’t realized how cold he actually was till they covered him with their own body heat. Tentatively, he reached out with an arm to nudge at one of the creatures. It snuggled down into him, unperturbed by the touch. Running his fingers through the fur, Leonard could swear the creature melted into the touch, the purring getting louder. It vibrated through his chest and suddenly all of the little creatures were looking at him from their places. He took turns petting each and every one of them, wondering if he was actually so far gone he was hallucinating.

Maybe he was. He’d probably succumbed to his concussion, or perhaps another injury he’d missed. But he was warm and that was counting for something.

The purring warmth pillowed him right into dreamland, and Leonard forgot to fight it off…

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Leonard floated… and he dreamed…

…dreamed of happier times…

…and of the bad ones…

…the little joys and the big ones…

…his proudest achievements and each humbling moment…

…the great heartaches and his biggest mistakes…

…his childhood, his dreams for the future, his marriage, his child…

…the fighting, the sacrifices, the divorce…

…of Starfleet and space…

…of his new family…

…of Jim…

…he dreamed, floating in warmth.

He woke occasionally with a painful twinge here, or as great emotion overtook him. The light in the cavern was never changing, the furry blanket one of the most comforting feelings he’d ever had.

Leonard was drawn under again, to a symphony of purring.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

“Bones! Oh, thank god,” a voice said as something skidded beside him. His blanket moved, the purring stuttering, and Leonard felt cold drafts as he curled down with a small whimper from the pain caused by the movement.

“Leonard, Len, please wake up, sweetheart. You gotta wake up,” the voice begged. Jim. It was Jim.

“Five more minutes,” Leonard mumbled. He tried to roll over and groaned, his eyes blinking open as reality once more crashed in on him.

“There you are,” Jim’s face swam into view, relief stark and plain on his face. One of the furry little creatures was riding his shoulder even as nearly all of Leonard’s blanket dissipated. He was suddenly very cold until Jim wrapped Leonard in his own outerwear coat.

“How long?” Leonard croaked.

“5 hours, 12 minutes and 23 seconds,” Spock intoned from behind Jim. “It’s good to see you alive and well, Dr. McCoy.”

“Only that?” Leonard said in surprise. “Felt like an eternity.”

“ _Only that?”_ Jim repeated incredulously _. “_ Len, it was 5 hours too long, was what it was. Now, you ready to get out of here?  Unfortunately, we need to go up and out of the cave systems the slow way - transporter can’t reach down here and neither do the scans,” Jim said, putting an arm around Leonard’s shoulders.

“I’ll manage,” Leonard grunted as Jim pulled him to his feet. His ankle was merely twisted, he thought, and his knee too. Wrapped as they were, he should be able to manage to get out of here, especially with a little help.

Jim laughed. “Looks like you made a friend.”

Leonard blinked at him slowly before he realized that not all of his living blanket had left. One curious little guy was now sitting on his shoulder, as light as a feather and still purring up a storm.

“Oh, yes, guess I have. I think I owe these little guys my life. Especially Frix here.” They started to move forward and Leonard was glad for the distraction of the conversation. Just because he  _could_ move, didn’t mean it was pleasant.

“On a first name basis already?” Jim asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Pausing, Leonard blinked again. “I don’t remember naming him. I must be more out of it than I thought.”

“That is, in fact, his name,” Spock said from Leonard’s other side. He swiveled his head around to finally look at Spock, his head wobbling a bit on his shoulders as he did. On Spocks shoulder was yet one more of the curious little creatures.

“And how in blazes would  _you_ know?” Leonard demanded.

Spock raised a brow, calmly answering in that infuriating way of his, “Because he told me. The Irrees are a telepathic race, and they apologize profusely for the accident you were caught in and for delving into your mind without your permission. They had been trying to talk to you, but found you unresponsive. They have, in fact, never known anyone who was not telepathic. It is unheard of in their species. They had no idea how to communicate with us, though they kept trying. It appears that we are the first intelligent life besides themselves that they have ever met.”

“Congratulations! You made First Contact, Bones,” Jim said proudly.

“I… what?” Leonard couldn’t wrap his mind around it. “But I didn’t do anything except fall into a hole and get hurt.”

“Well, don’t ask me,” Jim shrugged, the movement jostling Leonard and causing him to hiss through is teeth. “But these two have been appointed ambassadors and Frix there is apparently just along for the ride.” Jim shook his head. “I just can’t believe you cuddled with their high prince during a First Contact. How come you always get the easy ones?”

“I was cold,” Leonard mumbled, his cheeks flaming red. “I actually thought they might eat me.”

They had to stop as Jim laughed uproariously and even Spock turned to stare at him. Finally, though, Jim calmed down enough to keep walking and Spock deigned to concede that Dr. McCoy was wise to be cautious.

If he thought his humiliation was over, however, Leonard was soon disabused of that notion.

“You know, I never thought of Dr. McCoy as a cuddler,” Sulu’s even voice said from ahead of them. Leonard squinted but couldn’t quite catch sight of him. The dazzling light of the crystalline cave was no less brilliant here than it had been where he’d been holed up after the fall and he’d had no idea that Sulu was even there. How many others  _were_ there?

“I’m not,” Leonard grumped.

“He so is,” Jim said gleefully.

“Traitor,” Leonard said.

“I love you too, Bones,” Jim said softly.

“Harrumph,” Leonard acknowledged grumpily.

He was never living this down.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, Bones paranoia over the cute and furry animals wanting to eat him comes from a Frank Hayes Song that I was forbidden from ever playing in my dorm room EVER AGAIN. (way back when) However, the title IS taken from that song. it's not the title of the song (i don't think) but it's in the song and it just seemed... appropriate.


End file.
